Part of a 14-panel panorama etching of 17th-century buildings in St. Petersburg, Russia

Appendix E: Biographies

Winstanley, McNeill, Wellwood, Picard, Ware, Hull, Simpson, Clunie, Wilkin, Biggs, Cragg

Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley (North America [possibly Bahama Islands1] 27 September 1788 – Preston, Lancashire 20 August 1857; see Image 40)2 was Anna (McNeill) Whistler’s half-sister. Eliza’s parents were Dr. Daniel McNeill (North Carolina c. 1756 – “Oak Forest,” Bladen County, NC 7 December 1828; see Image 23)3 and Alice (Clunie)4 McNeill (Scotland 14 July 17575 – Wilmington, NC 12 November 1791),6 who were married on 29 August 1784 at Whitekirk, East Lothian.7 After the death of their mother, Eliza and her younger8 and only sister, Alicia (see Image 39), lived in Scotland with their maternal grandmother, Isabel (Finlay) Clunie, daughter of Thomas Finlay, minister of Prestonkirk, and widow of Rev. John Clunie (1708 – 19 June 1784).9 Eliza married on 25 May 1812 at Midlothian/Edinburgh, Edinburgh Parish, as his second wife, a widower, Colonel Robert Wellwood (7 February 1747 – 7 July 1820),10 of Garvock and Pitliver, Fife. A second date of 1 June 1812, Dunfermline, Fife, is also given for their marriage.11 They had no children. A portrait (present whereabouts unknown) of the beautiful Eliza (McNeill) Wellwood was painted by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) (see Image 40).12 Eliza married secondly, on 1 June 1825 at Edinburgh, St. Cuthberts,13 as his second wife, a widower, John Winstanley of Preston, Lancashire (Higher Walton 27 December 1776 – Preston 22 May 1859), solicitor, of the firm of Winstanley and Charnley, solicitors, of Preston. In this marriage there also were no children. It was to Eliza and John Winstanley’s home at 65 Fishergate, Preston,14 that Anna Whistler came in 1829, meeting them for the first time and staying about eighteen months.15 They introduced her to their friends (the Stevensons, Ormerods, Smiths of Chaddock Hall [see Image 467], Maudes) and relatives (other Winstanleys, the Picards, Wares, Ainsworths), all of whom figure in her diaries. It was to this same home that she came on her way to Russia in 1843, now a married woman, bringing her sons James (see Images 24–29), Willie (see Images 27, 30), and Charles Donald, and her step-daughter, Deborah Delano (see Images 17–19, 21) (George William, her step-son, is not mentioned as being in Preston), and renewing her acquaintance with the Winstanleys’ friends and relatives after a fourteen-year absence. It was just before Anna Whistler’s arrival that Eliza recorded in August 1843 a trip of her own to see her aunt in Scotland in June of 1843 to serve as a model for the diary she encouraged Anna Whistler to keep while in Russia (see Appendix D). Another trip by Anna Whistler, James, and Willie to Preston from St. Petersburg took place in the summer of 1847 (see Images 461–477), culminating in the marriage in Preston of Deborah Delano Whistler and Francis Seymour Haden (see Image 20) on 16 October of that year. In 1848, although Anna Whistler could not travel to Preston while in England, the Winstanleys visited her on the Isle of Wight (see Images 489–496). And finally, in June–July 1849, after the death of Major Whistler, Anna Whistler and Willie, joined by James, who was then living in England, visited Preston before returning home to America. Eliza, paralyzed in her last years, died in 1857.16 Her personal estate at her death amounted to under £450, but as her husband died in 1859 “without taking upon himself Letters of administration of the personal Estate and Effects of the deceased,”17 they were granted to her sister, Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, of Preston, on the consent of the executors of John Winstanley’s estate.18 It has not been possible to ascertain where she was buried.

* * *

John Winstanley was the sixth son of William Winstanley (10 August 1742 – 11 November 1791), Esq., of Cuerden, afterwards of Woodcock Hall, and Alice (Woodcock) Winstanley, second daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Woodcock, Esq., of Woodcock Hall. He married twice: first on 22 October 1804 at Eccleston by Chorley, Lancashire, Margaret, daughter of Richard Hatton, Esq., of Parbold, Lancashire; and secondly, on 1 June 1825 at Edinburgh, St. Cuthberts, Eliza Isabella (McNeill) Wellwood, widow of Colonel Robert Wellwood of Garvock and Pitliver, Fife.19 John Winstanley was “first listed practicing on his own as an attorney at 93 Fishergate, Preston, in 1818; and in 1821 as John Winstanley and Peter Catterall, Lune Street; the partnership moved to Fox Street in 1821. He subsequently formed the practice of Winstanley and Charnley at 2 Fox Street, Preston.”20 In later years, they were listed as “Winstanley and Charnley, Solicitors, and Masters Extraordinary in Chancery … Agents to the ‘Imperial Fire and Life Assurance,’ London Agents, F. G. Gregory and Co.”21 and “Winstanley and Charnley, solicitors, (agents to the Imperial Fire and Life Office) and clerks to Layton-with-Warbrick local board of health, and perpetual commissioners.”22 At his death in 1859 at the age of eighty-two,23 John Winstanley had outlived all his brothers and his sister. He left an estate of £20,000, which was bequeathed to both Eliza Winstanley’s and his own relatives.24 Alicia McNeill was bequeathed the sum of £2,000. Anna (McNeill) Whistler, Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer, Charles Johnston McNeill, and John Winstanley’s nephew, William Winstanley, each received the sum of £800; an equal sum was put in trust for the children of the late General William Gibbs McNeill. Nor did John Winstanley forget his wife’s cousins –Isabella Wilkin, Priscilla Cragg, Jessie Finlay, Wilhelmina Finlay, Ann Clunie, and Wilhelmina Clunie – although he left them lesser sums. He also left a bequest to “Walter Stevenson the Elder formerly of Edinburgh and now of London,” to his daughter, Eliza Isabella (Stevenson) Smith, and to his own nephews and nieces and their children. In the case of his own relatives, he left a bequest for the maintenance of the children of his late nephew, Robert Winstanley, son of his late brother, Thomas.25 He excluded Robert’s daughter, Alice, because she had been adopted by John Winstanley’s brother, William. He remembered also his nieces Elizabeth (Winstanley) Picard and Margaret (Winstanley) Ware, and the children of his late niece Sarah (Winstanley) Wray. These three women were sisters, the daughters of the late Woodcock Winstanley. He remembered as well his nephew, Rev. John Hull, of Poulton-le-Fylde, son of his late sister, Sarah (Winstanley) Hull. It has not been possible to ascertain John Winstanley’s place of burial. A portrait of John Winstanley was in the family in 1930. Its present whereabouts are unknown to me.

* * *

Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (Wilmington, NC (before 12) November 1791 – Linlithgow 20 September 1863)26 was Anna Whistler’s other half-sister and the natural sister of Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley. It is not clear where she lived. She frequently stayed with the Winstanleys in Preston, but the 1851 Census for Preston (when the Winstanleys were still alive) shows that she was a visitor in the home of John Richards, an attorney’s general clerk, and his wife, Betty,27 while the 1861 Census for Preston (after the Winstanleys were deceased) shows that she was a lodger in the household of Esther Thompson at 8 Stanley Place. She was seventy years old in 1861, unmarried, and an annuitant.28 Her Letters of Administration and will say she is “of Preston.” It was she who came to Liverpool in November 1829 to meet for the first time and take to Preston the newly arrived Anna McNeill.29 Unmarried, Alicia was freer to travel both outside Great Britain and for extended periods of time. It would appear that she was in Lowell with the Whistlers in July 1834 when James was born.30 Whether she then went back to England is not clear, but further references to a sojourn in the United States show that she was in America no later than 10 July 1836, in time for the birth of William Whistler.31 She included North Carolina in her travels. She set out for a visit to North Carolina via New York on 27 September 1836.32 She may have spent the winter of 1836 or 1837 in the warm climate of Wilmington, North Carolina, accompanying General J.G. Swift’s daughter, Louisa Josephine, there and home again because of the latter’s delicate health.33 She had returned to England before 19 June 1838.34 In July 1844, she came to St. Petersburg, was present at the birth of the Whistlers’ last child in August 1845, and remained with them until September 1845. In July 1849, while the widowed Anna Whistler was visiting in England on her way home to America, Alicia took James and Willie on a trip to Scotland.35 She frequently traveled to Scotland, and it was there in Linlithgow on 20 September 1863 that she died “after a very short illness – On her way to Church she was suddenly seized with faintness – and shortly afterwards expired – At the time of her decease she was visiting her friend, Mrs. John Rodger, of Linlithgow on her route from Culross (where she had been staying the summer) for Preston. On the Thursday following she was interred in the Linlithgow Church Yard.”36 She was buried from the house of Mrs. Rodger, whom she had known in Russia, when the latter was Miss Sophia Morgan of Edinburgh.37 Her likeness, drawn by James Whistler in 1844, shows a plain, stout woman with eyeglasses (see Image 39).38 The diaries attest to her generosity, as does her will. Her effects were under £2000. The chief portion of her estate went to her American relatives: half-sisters, half-brother, and their children. To Anna Whistler she bequeathed £250, her pearl brooch set with hair, her wardrobe “for her own use,” and “for her life the Portrait of our justly valued Sister the late Eliza Isabella Winstanley.”39 She also entrusted to Anna Whistler all her remaining jewelry for distribution at her discretion among the junior members of the family. To Catherine Jane Palmer she bequeathed £250, a gold watch, gold spectacles, and a hair bracelet. At Anna Whistler’s death, the portrait of Eliza Winstanley was to go to Catherine Jane Palmer “to be kept in the family.”40 Outright gifts of money were bequeathed to her half-brother, Charles Johnston McNeill (£200); the surviving children of her late half-brother, General William Gibbs McNeill: Mary Isabella Rodewald (£150) (see Image 32), Catherine Julia Rodewald (£150) (see Image 33), and Patrick Tracy Jackson McNeill £200); her nephews, James and William Whistler (£100 each); and her niece, Deborah Whistler Haden (£100). She left the residue of all her “other estate and effects after payment of … debts and testamentary expenses” to Frederick Rodewald, whom she mistakenly identified as the husband of her niece, Catherine Julia (McNeill) Rodewald, in trust for her nephew, Lt. Donald McNeill Fairfax, of the U.S. Navy (see Image 38). (The husband of Catherine Julia was Adolph Rodewald.) Reference is made to “Aunt Alicia” even in James Whistler’s late correspondence.41

* * *

Other relatives of John Winstanley are also mentioned in the diaries: his sister Sarah; her husband, Dr. John Hull, MD; their son, Rev. John Hull; and some of the children of John Winstanley’s brothers, William, Thomas, and Woodcock.

John Winstanley’s sister Sarah Winstanley (bap. 24 June 1765 – Poulton 9 March 1842),42 married in 1792 Dr. John Hull, MD (Poulton, Lancashire 30 September 1761 – London 17 March 1843; buried Poulton, Lancashire 22 March 1843), whose medical practice was carried on chiefly in Manchester after 1796. He was also a botanist of note.43 Their son, Rev. Canon John Hull (1803 – Eaglescliffe, County Durham 8 March 1887), graduated from “Brasenose College, Oxford, B.A. 21 October 1823, M.A. 23 February 1826. After being ordained he held curacies in Croston and Lancaster.”44 He was vicar of St. Chad’s Church in Poulton-le-Fylde from 1835 to 1864, honorary canon of Manchester and rural dean and examining chaplain to the First Bishop of Manchester.45 “In 1863 he resigned the vicarage of Poulton on his appointment to the rectory of Eaglesfield, Durham.”46 He married on 1 July 1833 at Rousham, Suffolk, Lucy Brooke (1812 or 1813 – Southport, Lancashire 6 September 1899), daughter of R. Bevan, Esq.47 When Anna Whistler, James, and Willie were at Blackpool, South Shore, in the summer of 1847, they dined at the rectory of St. Chad’s with Rev. John Hull and his wife, and visited in the churchyard the monument to his father, Dr. John Hull. Anna Whistler had met Sarah (Winstanley) Hull and Dr. John Hull in 1829, on her first visit to the Winstanleys.48

John Winstanley’s brother William Winstanley (6 December 1772 – 15 May 1852; see Image 473), MD and JP, lived in the period of the diaries variously at Woolton Hall, Liverpool; Chaigely Manor, Clitheroe; and West Cliff, Preston.49 He married on 26 May 1808 Elizabeth (bap. Unitarian Church-NC, Manchester 25 October 1772 – 31 December 1845), eldest daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Hardman, Esq., a Manchester merchant, and his wife, Urith.50 Their son, William Winstanley (10 March 1810 – 22 February 1873), JP, of Chaigely Manor, Clitheroe, and of 2 West Cliff, Preston, married on 14 September 1844 Charlotte Lavinia (bap. High Pavement Presbyterian, Nottingham 21 July 1816 – 14 March 1899), elder daughter of Charlotte Octavia and Alfred Lowe, Esq., of Highfield, Nottinghamshire.51 Dr. William Winstanley lived in the house at West Cliffe, which he had built after his wife’s death, “with his unmarried sister-in-law, Anna Hardman, who adopted Alice, daughter of one of Winstanley’s nephews, Robert, whose mother had died when she was young.”52 Some of the family, not referred to by individual name, came from “the Cliffe” to John Winstanley’s home to pay their respects to Francis Seymour and Deborah (Whistler) Haden on the day of their wedding in Preston, 16 October 1847.

Another brother of John Winstanley, Thomas Winstanley (27 May 1774 – 8 June 1822), married on 10 February 1800 Elizabeth (17 May 1774 – 14 August 1816), daughter of Richard Hatton, Esq., of Parbold, Lancashire.53 The death of one of their two surviving sons, Thomas Woodcock Winstanley (9 February 1805 – 19 July 1844), a bachelor, is announced in the diaries.

John Winstanley’s brother Woodcock Winstanley (30 August 1768 – 10 October 1823),54 of Aysgarth, Yorkshire, married Betty (27 November 1770 – 28 March 1843), daughter and heiress of John Ryder, Esq., of Gammersgill, Yorkshire. Two of their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, appear in the diaries.

Elizabeth Winstanley (19 March 1800 – 4 June 1875)55 married Richard Stuart Picard, Esq. (bap. 16 January 1807 – 26 November 1887)56 of Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland, on 16 May 1835, at Bolton Castle cum Redmire.57 In the 1841 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, Richard S. Picard’s occupation is given as “Chemist and Drugist.”58 In 1851, the Picards and their son were visiting John and Eliza Winstanley in Preston; Richard S. Picard is listed in the 1851 Census for Preston as “landed proprietor.”59 In the 1861 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, he is also listed as “landed proprietor.”60 In the 1871 Census, he is listed as “land owner.”61 In the 1881 Census, he is a “widower” and his occupation is “land and dividends.”62 He was one of the executors of John Winstanley’s will.63 The gross value of his own estate was about £3,000. The son of Elizabeth (Winstanley) and Richard Stuart Picard, John Richard Picard (bap. 10 December 1842 – 7 October 1933), is listed in the 1861 Census as a “solicitors articled clerk.”64 In the 1881 Census, he is listed as “solicitor” and “unmarried.”65 His effects, when he died, amounted to almost £57,000.66

Margaret Winstanley (b. 12 April 1801; bap. 17 April 1801; d. Leyburn, York 16 April 1877) married William Ware Esq. (c. 1793 – before 15 June 1843), a banker, on 7 April 1828, at Bolton Castle cum Redmire.67 They had a son, William Ryder (31 March 1830 – buried 1 October 1834), baptized at Wensley, Yorkshire.68 Mrs. Ware does not appear in the 1841 Census for the Picards of Kirkby Lonsdale. In the 1851 Census for Beck Head, Kirkby Lonsdale, she was the head of household in the absence of the Picards, listed as “widow” and “landed proprietor,” aged forty-nine. In 1861, she is listed as “sister-in-law,” “widow,” “landed proprietor,” aged sixty. In the 1871 Census for Picard on Main Street, Kirkby Lonsdale, she is listed as “sister-in-law,” “widow,” “landowner,” aged sixty-nine. The three members of the Picard family and the widowed Mrs. Ware appear in the diaries.

Other Picard relatives and some lodgers are referred to as well. The two little cousins of young John Richard Picard, Mary and Meggie, were the daughters of Richard Stuart Picard’s brother, Thomas Picard (bap. 18 April 1808 – 17 September 1846), who married on 1 August 1836 at South Leith Mary McDonald (c. 1812 – 21 August 1850).69 The children were Mary Jane Picard (bap. St. Andrew Presbyterian, Liverpool 15 May 1838 – Gateacre, near Liverpool 8 September 1892)70 and Margaret Stuart Picard (bap. South Leith 27 April 1841 – 10 May 1883).71 This family also lived in Kirkby Lonsdale, on New Road. Mary Jane Picard married on 7 January 1863 at Kirkby Lonsdale Eustace Carey (1836 – Liverpool 3 March 1915), an alkali manufacturer.72 Margaret Stuart Picard married on 8 January 1879 at Farnworth-in-Widnes James Wray (19 March 1826 – 28 December 1894), major and staff paymaster, Her Majesty’s Army Pay Department (at his death, lieutenant-colonel, retired).73 “According to the Army List of January 1883, [he] … was appointed staff paymaster for the Nova Scotia district on 1 April 1878. Margaret Wray died in childbirth on 10 May 1883 and was buried in Camp Hill Cemetery, Halifax.”74

* * *

Living with the family of Richard and Elizabeth (Winstanley) Picard were two Scotswomen, Jane (or Jean) Simpson (b. Bothkennar, Stirlingshire, 1790; bap. 27 August 1797; d. 4 January 1852) and her sister, Isabella Simpson (bap. Bothkennar, Stirlingshire 14 August 1814 – Stoke Newington 12 August 1889), the daughters of James and Jean (Neilson) Simpson.75 The 1841 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale lists Jane Simpson as residing in the household of Richard Picard in Wilsons Yard. She was forty-five years old, “unmarried,” and “of independent means.” In the 1851 Census, she is listed as “lodger,” “unmarried,” and “annuitant,” fifty-five years old, residing at Beck Head, head of household Margaret Ware. Isabella Simpson is also listed in the 1841 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale as residing in the household of Richard Picard in Wilsons yard. She was twenty-four years old and of independent means. She was listed, like her sister, in the 1851 Census as a “lodger” residing at Beck Head, “unmarried,” and an “annuitant.” Her age was given as thirty-five. In the 1861 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, Main Street, Isabella Simpson is described as “ward,” “unmarried,” and “annuitant,” forty-five years old. In the 1871 and 1881 censuses for Kirkby Lonsdale, she continued to reside on Main Street, but was living with Jane Picard, sister of Richard Stuart Picard. Her personal estate at her death was £155 and her sole executor was John Richard Picard, son of Eliza (Winstanley) and Richard Stuart Picard.

* * * * *

Relatives of Eliza Winstanley and Alicia McNeill also appear in Anna Whistler’s diaries. Aunt Marion Anne (Clunie) Wilkin(s) (b. 9 August 1771; bap. 20 August 1771),76 their mother’s sister, is mentioned. She was the widow of William Wilkin(s) (bap. Bolton on Swale, Yorkshire 4 October 1806), whom she had married on 19 April 1805.77 Also mentioned is one of their daughters, Priscilla Eliza (Wilkin[s]) Cragg (b. 1817 or 1818; bap. Leyland, Lancashire 6 February 1824; d. Blackpool 17 September 1861),78 who married on 25 August 1844 William Cragg (c. 1812 – 13 July 1898).79 After his wife’s death, he remarried.80 William Cragg’s occupation is listed as carrier and lodging house keeper in the 1851 Census for Blackpool, landed proprietor in the 1861 Census, Yeoman in the 1871 Census, farmer and lodging house keeper in the 1881 Census, and retired farmer in the 1891 Census.81 Marion Anne (Clunie) Wilkin is the center of a legal debate in Eliza Winstanley’s 1843 Edinburgh diary (see Appendix D).

Eliza Winstanley and Alicia McNeill’s aunt, their mother’s sister, Charlotte (Clunie) Biggs (Whitekirk, East Lothian 24 July 1762 – Portobello, Edinburgh 26 November 1844),82 also appears in Eliza Winstanley’s August 1843 diary. She is the aunt with whom Eliza Winstanley stayed during that trip. Aunt Charlotte’s husband, the late James Biggs, Esq. (d. Memel 24 March 1806), had been a British “wood merchant at Memel, East Prussia.”83

Cousin Anne Clunie (Berwick on Tweed 10 June 1793 – Edinburgh 18 May 1882)84 is recorded on several occasions in Anna Whistler’s diaries as a visitor in the home of Eliza and John Winstanley.85 She was the daughter of John (b. 30 September 1755) and Wilhelmina (Rutherford) Clunie (b. Jedburgh 1761).86 John Clunie was the brother of Eliza Winstanley and Alicia McNeill’s mother.87 John and Wilhelmina (Rutherford) Clunie of Berwick on Tweed had five other surviving children besides Anne: Rutherford Ainslie (b. 27 June 1791), James (b. 6 April 1796), George (bap. 17 March 1799), Williamina (bap. 17 Sept. 1800), and David Baird (bap. 9 April 1805).88 Rutherford Ainslie Clunie, a corn merchant, married Frances Mein at Berwick on 12 August 1816.89 Their son, Thomas Mein Clunie (1827 – 1 April 1898),90 Anne Clunie’s nephew, is mentioned in the diaries as helping in Liverpool during the wedding preparations for the Whistler–Haden marriage in 1847.91 He was then twenty years old. Like his father, he became a corn merchant.92 He married on 28 October 1854 Charlotte Ann Bowen.93

Notes

1   The 1851 Census for Preston records that Eliza (McNeill) Winstanley was born in “North America B.S.” (the standard census indicator for “British Subject”). Robin Spencer, however, reads “B.S.” as “B.I.” for “Bahama Islands” (“Whistler’s Early Relations with Britain,” pp. 215–216). Although “B.S.” indicates “British Subject,” some remarks on the Bahama Islands are warranted, as they were an important locale in the life of the McNeills. Two of Dr. Daniel McNeill’s sisters had married two Loyalist brothers and had settled in the Bahamas. His sister, Eliza, had married (on 24 October 1789) Archibald Taylor (d. Long Island, Bahamas 14 February 1816), a former major in the Royal Militia of North Carolina ([Obituary of Archibald Taylor], Royal Gazette and Bahama Advertiser, February 7, 1816); his sister, Margaret, had married (in 1793) Duncan Taylor. When Dr. McNeill was banished from North Carolina for similar sympathies (North Carolina State Records, 1786, Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh, NC), he may have fled to the Bahamas. It is therefore plausible that the Bahama Islands are the place of birth of his daughter, Eliza, on 27 September 1788. See William McNeill, “The McNeill Family of Bladen County,” in Bladen County Heritage, North Carolina (Waynesville, NC: Bladen County Heritage Book Committee and County Heritage, 1999), vol. 1, p. 210, entry 595, “McNeil–Taylor.”

2   Letters of Administration of Eliza Isabella Winstanley, Lancashire Record Office, Preston, Lancashire (hereafter, LRO).

3   Brooklyn Star, January 1, 1829, Brooklyn Historical Society. For the ancestry of Dr. Daniel McNeill, see Douglas F. Kelly with Caroline Switzer Kelly, Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of Over 100 Years of Emigration (Dillon, SC: 1739 Publications, 1998), pp. 162–163 and McNeill, “McNeill Family of Bladen County.”

4   The information that Dr. McNeill’s first wife was a Mary McLean is incorrect (McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother, pp. 5–6; Mumford, Whistler’s Mother, p. 6). See Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 1, Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, p. 423.

5   McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother, pp. 5–6; Mumford, Whistler’s Mother, p. 6; Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 1, Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, p. 423.

6   Alicia Clunie McNeill died after “a short, but painful illness.” Her obituary appeared in a newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina. So little is known about Dr. Daniel McNeill’s first wife that I quote her entire obituary here:

DIED.] At Wilmington, North Carolina, on the 12th instant, Mrs. Alicia Mac Neile, the amiable consort of Dr. Daniel MacNeile of that place. She supported a short, but painful illness, with all the pious resignation which mark the christian at the approach of the awful, but to them, the most welcome messenger. To enumerate the many virtues of this lady would only renew the poignant grief of the disconsolate husband, whose loss upon this trying occasion is irreparable but, as a tribute to her memory, it is but just to say, if sweetness of disposition, sensibility of heart, and affability in manners, are engaging traits in the female character, she was allowed by those who knew her, to possess these and many other social accomplishments in a degree which renders her early fate regreted by all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance, as well as sincerely lamented by those now nearly concerned under, the ties of conjugal affection.

    “Peaceful sleep out, the Sabbath of the tomb,

    “And wake in rapture in a life to come?

    POPE.”

(City Gazette (Charleston, SC), November 25, 1791, p. 3)

See also David Dobson, Directory of Scots in the Carolinas, 1680–1830, 2 vols. (Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Genealogical Publishing, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 47, 208. Dobson cites the Edinburgh Evening Courant as his source. Unfortunately, the wrong date is given in Mabel L. Webber, comp., “Marriage and Death Notices from the City Gazette,” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 21 (1920): p. 68. According to the Services of Heirs (see Appendix H), on 6 July 1824 in New York (where her father, Dr. Daniel McNeill, was living), Alicia McNeill was registered as heir to her mother, Alicia Clunie or McNeill, daughter of John Clunie in Whitekirk (Service of Heirs, C22/121, pp. 226–227, SRO; see Appendix H). See also David Dobson, Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America, 1625–1825, 7 vols. [Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Genealogical Publishing, 1984–1993], vol. 4, p. 98; and David Dobson, Scottish-American Heirs, 1683–1883 [Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Genealogical Publishing, 1990], p. 84).

7   IGI for East Lothian.

8   Anna Whistler stated that Eliza was their eldest sister (Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, London, 10 February 1864, GUL: Whistler Collection, W516). A comparison of the 1851 Census for two Preston households supports her statement; it shows that while Eliza gave her age as sixty-three, Alicia gave hers as sixty. As Alicia seems, therefore, to have been born the year her mother died (1791), it is possible her mother died of complications resulting from childbirth. For this reason I have given Alicia’s birth date as possibly before 12 November 1791.

9   Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 1, Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, p. 423.

10  Anderson, Scottish Nation, vol. 3, pp. 633–634.

11  IGI.

12  The portrait is said to have been sold in 1917 by the Ehrich Galleries in London to an American collector.

Louis Rinaldo Ehrich (Albany, New York 23 January 1849 – London 23 October 1911), Yale University, Class of 1869, “was a collector and dealer in old paintings.” He was “president of the Ehrich Galleries in New York” and “made an annual tour to Europe in search of masterpieces of all schools. Many of those he gathered were of great value, and he had imported an especially large number of the works of the early Spanish masters” (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased from June, 1910, to July, 1915 [New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1915], pp. 230–232). His son, Walter Louis Ehrich (New York 9 July 1878 – New York 2 February 1936), Yale University, Class of 1899, was vice-president of the Ehrich Galleries from 1908 to 1932 and president from 1932 to 1934. In 1934, he became president of the Ehrich-Newhouse Galleries (Bulletin of Yale University Obituary Record of Graduates Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1936, series 33, no. 3 [15 October 1936]: p. 158). Attempts by me to ascertain the location of the records of the Ehrich Galleries and of the Ehrich-Newhouse Galleries have not been successful, and the identity of the purchaser of the portrait remains unknown.

13  OPRS.

14  Mannex, Preston.

15  Anna McNeill to Catherine Jane McNeill, Liverpool, 22 November 1829, GUL: Whistler Collection, W344, records her first meeting with the Winstanleys.

16  “On the 20th inst., Eliza Isabella, wife of John Winstanley, Esq., Fishergate, aged 69” (Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser, August 29, 1857). See also Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, Scarsdale, 13 January 1857, GUL: Whistler Collection, W474; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, Pomfret, 17 September 1857, W483 (in this letter, Anna Whistler says Eliza Winstanley died on August 19); Deborah (Whistler) Haden to Gen. J.G. Swift, August 26th/[18]57; USMAL: J.G. Swift Papers, folder marked “Miscellaneous.”

17  Letters of Administration of Eliza Isabella Winstanley, LRO.

18  Letters of Administration of Eliza Isabella Winstanley, LRO.

19  Burke’s Landed Gentry (1937), p. 2474.

20  Spencer, “Whistler’s Early Relations with Britain,” p. 216. See also Williams’ South Lancashire Directory, 1845.

21  Oakley’s Directory of Preston, 1853.

22  Preston and Fylde Directory, 1857.

23  “On Sunday last, at his residence, Fishergate, John Winstanley Esq., in the 82nd year of his age” (Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser, May 28, 1859).

24  His executors were his nephews, William Winstanley of Chaigeley Manor, in the County of Lancaster, Esquire; and Thomas Ainsworth of Cleator in the County of Cumberland, flax spinner; and Richard Stuart Picard, the husband of his niece, Elizabeth (Winstanley) Picard, of Kirkby Lonsdale in the County of Westmorland, gentleman (Will of John Winstanley of Preston, LRO).

25  He later changed the terms and sum of this part of the bequest in a codicil dated 11 May 1859, several days before his death. The original will was dated 1 April 1859.

26  1851 Census for Preston, Ecclesiastical District: St. John’s, 79 Frenchwood Street, HO107/2265, fol. 527/8, p. 19–20. Alicia McNeill’s age is given as sixty, her marriage condition as “unmarried,” her place of birth as “North Carolina N-A.” For her place of residence see also the entry for Saturday December 2: December 1st [sic: 29 November], AMW 1850 Diary. For her place and date of death, see Letters of Administration for Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, LRO, and Note 36 in this biography.

27  1851 Census for Preston, HO 107/2265, fol. 527/8, p. 19–20.

28  1861 Census for Preston, Ecclesiastical District of Christchurch, RG 9/3129, fol. 109, p. 41. Her place of birth is given as “N: Carolina U. States of A.” Her landlady was Esther (Proddow) Thompson (b. 7 September 1807 and bap. 1 October 1807 at Crosthwaite, Cumberland).

29  Anna McNeill recorded how overcome she was at their first meeting (Anna McNeill to Catherine Jane McNeill, Liverpool, 22 November 1829, GUL: Whistler Collection, W344).

30  James McNeill Whistler to his Father [St. Petersburg 10 or 11 July 1844], roll 4601, LB13, no. l, AAA: JMcNW.

31  Young Charlotte Swift, daughter of Gen. Joseph Gardner Swift and Louisa (Walker) Swift, wrote her brother from Newport, Rhode Island: “Miss Alicia McNeill arrived here last evening, with George Whistler, they went away this morning, … but they will come back in a few days” (Charlotte F. Swift, to Brother, Newport, Thursday, July 11, 1836, USMAL: J.G. Swift Papers, box 12).

32  Martha McNeil to Sarah, Dedham, 27 September 1836, NYPL: Swift Papers. In September 1836, Charlotte Swift wrote her mother in Brooklyn, Long Island, from a Mrs. Lomax’s in Newport, Rhode Island: “Sister mentions in her letter that I thought Grand-ma McNeill [Anna Whistler’s mother] was the cause of my not going home but I did not I thought it was Miss Alicia McNeill” (C.F. Swift to her mother, Newport, entry of Sept. 20 in letter of 18 Sept. 1836, USMAL: J.G. Swift Papers, box 12).

33  Anna Whistler to Gen. J.G. Swift New York. friday [September] 29 [1837], NYPL: Swift Papers. The dating of this letter is based on the fact that Anna Whistler was enclosing it along with a letter written by her husband to Gen. J.G. Swift the day before and dated New York, Sept. 28, 1837.

34  A correspondent complained to Mrs. General Swift: “Alicia surely might have wrote to us before she returned to England” (Elizabeth Walker to Louisa (Walker) Swift, Cane Patch, 19 June 1838, USMAL: J.G. Swift Papers, box 12).

35  Anna Whistler to Mr. Harrison, 62 Sloane St. June 19th 1849, LC: PW, box 34; Anna Whistler to Mrs. Harrison, 62 Sloane S June 20 [1849]; Anna Whistler to Mr. Harrison, Saturday evening. Preston. July 7 1849; Anna Whistler to Mr. & Mrs. Harrison, Fleetwood. Monday. July 15 1849.

36  William Charnley to “Madam,” Preston 23 October 1863, GUL: Whistler Collection, C76. William Charnley, Aunt Alicia’s executor, was writing to one of her female heirs to announce her death and the particulars of her will. On the outside of his letter is written: “A Copy of ‘Aunt Alicia’s’ Will please return to ‘Aunt Kate’.” Charnley’s letter may therefore have been addressed to Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer. See also GUL: Whistler Collection, F21, McDiarmid, p. 329; McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother, p. 145.

The newspaper notice of her death further clarifies that she “left the house of Mr. Rodger with him to attend church in the forenoon, in the Town Hall, where the Free Church congregation were temporarily meeting during repairs on their church. When deceased reached the Cross she was taken ill and had to be assisted into the nearest house, where she gradually became worse, and in less than an hour expired. Dr. Baird, who had been called in, was of opinion that the death was caused by congestion of the lungs, accompanied by disease of the heart” (The Scotsman (Edinburgh), September 22, 1863, p. 2; The Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser, September 26, 1863; Daily Review (Edinburgh), September 22, 1863).

The Local Collection librarian of the Linlithgow Library has informed me that they “have been unable to trace [Alicia McNeill’s grave], either on the ground in St. Michael’s Parish Churchyard, or through West Lothian Council Cemeteries Records” (M.S. Cavanagh, Linlithgow, to E. Harden, 14 February 2005). Monumental Inscriptions (Pre-1855) in West Lothian ([Edinburgh]: Scottish Genealogical Society, 1961) contains no record of an inscription for her in Linlithgow Churchyard, not even in the entry for Rodger. However, the Index does not say whether all the inscriptions in the churchyard were legible nor how many unmarked graves there may be.

37  Alicia McNeill and Sophia Morgan became friends in St. Petersburg in 1844, when Alicia came to visit the Whistlers (Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, London, 10 and 11 February 1864, GUL: Whistler Collection, W516). Sophia Morgan (Greenock 1808 – Merchiston, Edinburgh 13 April 1872), daughter of Francis and Isabella Margery (Carmichael) Morgan of Greenock, married John Rodger (bap. Greenock 4 September 1796 – before 1871 Census) on 30 October 1856, Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian (IGI for Midlothian; 1871 Census for Linlithgow; entry of death for Sophia Morgan Rodgers on Scotlands People website; OPRS for Renfrewshire; London Evening Standard, April 6, 1872). The 1861 Census for Linlithgow gives the further information that they lived in a house called Friar Bank; that John Rodger, a retired banker, was sixty-four years old; and that Sophia was fifty-three.

38  Pennell and Pennell, Life of Whistler, vol. 1, p. 25, where it is incorrectly called “Aunt Kate” [Palmer]. This bust-length portrait is in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York (1953-186-17). James Whistler drew on both sides of the sheet. “… (in the middle of the up-turned sheet about the same level as the stain on the left) there is a very light sketch in graphite of the eye, nose and mouth of a profile figure. It would appear that Whistler started his sketch on the verso side of the sheet and then turned it over and re-drew the finished portrait on what is now the recto side” (Gail Davidson, New York, to E. Harden, 25 October 1999).

39  The will does not specify whether this is the Raeburn portrait or another.

40  Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer predeceased her sister.

41  James McNeill Whistler to Deborah Haden (from a copy), Paris [January 1898], roll 4601, LB13, AAA: JMcNW.

42  IGI; Fishwick, History of Poulton-le-Fylde, p. 55, and J. Scott Ashton, The History of St. Chad’s Church Poulton-le-Fylde (Fleetwood, 1949), p. 59; Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Inquirer, March 19, 1842.

43  Fishwick, History of Poulton-le-Fylde, pp. 56–57, 85.

44  Fishwick, p. 86. Ashton, History of St. Chad’s Church, pp. 38, 40, 57.

45  Ashton, p. 57.

46  Fishwick, History of Poulton-le-Fylde, p. 86.

47  Gentleman’s Magazine 103 (1833), pt. 2, p. 77; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1899.

48  Anna Whistler to Margaret Hill, Manchester, January 14th, 1830, LC: PW, box 34.

49  Spencer, “Whistler’s Early Relations with Britain,” p. 217; 1851 Census for Preston, HO 107/2265, fol. 598, p. 14–15; Eliza Winstanley to Kate Palmer, Preston, 2 Janry 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W1080; C.W. Winstanley, comp. Pedigrees from Winstanley: Wills and Administrations with Additional Details from Various Parish Registers and Family Records (printed by the author, May 1952), vol. 2, p. 239. Eliza Winstanley explained that the house was “on a line with Stanley Terrace, on the other side of Fishergate, fronting the river.”

50  Burke’s Landed Gentry (1937), p. 2474. See also Edward Mansfield Brockbank, Sketches of the Lives and Work of the Honorary Medical Staff of the Manchester Infirmary From its Foundation in 1752 to 1830, When It Became the Royal Infirmary (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1904), pp. 241–245; The Palatine Note-book, 5 vols. (Manchester, UK: J.E. Cornish, 1881–1885), vol. 4, pp. 167–168; Anand Chitnis, The Scottish Enlightenment and Early Victorian English Society (London: Croom Helm, 1986), pp. 152–153; Thomas Baker, Memorials of a Dissenting Chapel, Its Foundations and Worthies (London: Simkin, Marshall, 1884), p. 94; Hewitson, History of Preston, pp. 515–517; Spencer, “Whistler’s Early Relations with Britain,” pp. 216–217.

51  Burke’s Landed Gentry (1937), p. 2474; Hewitson, History of Preston, p. 517.

52  Spencer, “Whistler’s Early Relations with Britain,” p. 217. John Winstanley’s will says William Winstanley adopted Alice, but Eliza Winstanley makes clear that the child’s aunt, Anna Hardman, did (Eliza Winstanley to Kate Palmer, Preston, 2 Janry 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W1080).

53  Sir John Bernard Burke, Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 17th ed. (London: Burke’s Peerage, 1952), p. 2765; Winstanley, Pedigrees from Winstanley, vol. 2, p. 239. John and Thomas Winstanley were married to two Hatton sisters.

54  Winstanley, Pedigrees from Winstanley, vol. 2, p. 239.

55  Bellasis, Westmorland Church Notes, p. 104.

56  Bellasis, Westmorland Church Notes, p. 104. IGI for Yorkshire gives his baptismal date as 16 January 1807.

57  IGI for Yorkshire.

58  1841 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland. HO 107/1161, ED 14, fol. 21.

59  1851 Census for Preston.

60  1861 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale.

61  1871 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, RG 10, 5284, fol. 16, p. 26.

62  1881 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, RG 11/5210, fol. 92, p. 1.

63  See Note 24 in this biography.

64  1861 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale.

65  1881 Census for Kirkby Lonsdale, RG 11/5210, fol. 92, p. 1.

66  National Probate Calendar (UK), 1933.

67  IGI for Yorkshire.

68  Hartley Thwaite, ed., The Parish Register of Wensley, vol. 2, 1701–1837 (privately printed for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Parish Register Section, 1967), p. 195; Hartley Thwaite, ed., York: Parish Registers of Aysgarth, 1709–1840, “from a transcript made for the society by Hartley Thwaite, typed and indexed by Miss Pole-Stuart, 1943/4” (privately printed for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society), p. 226.

69  OPRS; Bellasis, Westmorland Church Notes, p. 104.

70  IGI for Lancashire; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1892.

71  OPRS; National Probate Calendar (UK), 2 August [1883].

72  National Probate Calendar (UK), 1915.

73  The Times (London), no. 29,461, January 1879; 1881 Census for Scotland, vol. 387, ED 3, p. 3; The Times (London), January 1, 1895; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1895.

74  Rosemary Barbour, Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, Halifax, NS, to E. Harden, 29 September 2004; William Cleary, Camp Hill Cemetery, Halifax, NS, to E. Harden, [October 2004].

75  IGI for Stirlingshire; will of Isabella Simpson, York Probate Sub-Registry; certified copy of an Entry of Death for Jane Simpson, Sub-district: Kirby Lonsdale, counties of Westmorland and Lancaster, GRO; Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Pomfret, tuesday night Feb 10 [1852], GUL: Whistler Collection, W406.

76  Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 1, Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, p. 423; IGI.

77  IGI; Will of Mrs. Charlotte Clunie or Biggs, dated 26 November 1844.

78  IGI; 1851 Census for Blackpool, HO 107/2269, fol. 457, p. 4–5.

79  National Probate Calendar (UK), 1898.

80  The 1871 Census for Blackpool, RG 10/4223, fol. 21, p. 36, shows that he was married to Rebecca Cragg.

81  1851 Census for Blackpool, HO 107/ 2269, fol. 457, p. 4/5; 1861 Census for Blackpool, RG 9/3148, fol. 77, p. 6; 1871 Census for Blackpool, RG 10/4223, fol. 21, p. 36; 1881 Census for Blackpool, RG 11, 4254, fol. 10, p. 15; 1891 Census for Blackpool, RG 12/3454, fol. 53, p. 32.

82  IGI; Appendix D.

83  Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 1, Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, p. 423; Will of Mrs. Charlotte Clunie or Biggs, dated 26 November 1844.

84  1881 Census for Scotland; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1882.

85  She is also mentioned in a number of Anna Whistler’s and family letters (Eliza Winstanley to Kate Palmer, 20 Jan. 1854, GUL: Whistler Collection, W1082; Anna Whistler to [James H. Gamble] Thursday eve 9th [Dec. 1858], W498; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, London, 7–10 Sept. 1870, W539; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, Hastings, 9 and 18 Sept. 1875, W548; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, Hastings, Monday Sept 20th [1875], W551; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, Hastings, 8 Sept. 1876, W553).

86  IGI.

87  Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 1, Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, p. 423.

88  IGI.

89  IGI; Pigot’s Directory of Chester …Yorkshire (1822).

90  1861, 1871, 1881, and 1901 censuses for Liverpool; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1898.

91  Entry for Preston. September, Saturday 10, but written in late autumn 1847 after the Whistlers’ return to St. Petersburg, NYPL: AWPD, Part II.

92  Gore’s Directory of Liverpool 1859.

93  Index of Marriages, GRO; Liverpool Mail, November 4, 1854.